A workshop seen from different perspectives
Objectives
Understand the general structure of CodeRefinery workshops and why it is the way it is
Get to know the different roles of a workshop and which ones are the most essential ones
Understand the importance of installation instructions and how they contribute to learners success
Understand the importance of onboarding and a welcoming community for volunteers in a workshop
Instructor note
Teaching: 20 min
Exercises: 15 min
Roles journeys can be shortened to looking only at instructor role.
Note
This episode focuses on the large scale streamed workshop setup. Some of the features can also be applied to smaller scale workshops though.
Discussion
Discussion
In breakoutrooms: choose one or two questions to talk about your own experiences; summary in collaborative notes:
What kind of roles have you been in yourself regarding workshops?
How were you prepared for your role?
What are the things you would like to know before a workshop?
How are you preparing your participants for your trainings?
What was the best workshop experience for you as learner, helper or instructor? What made it great?
One workshop - many parts
Image showing the different phases of a CodeRefinery workshop described below. Also showing that while there is only two people teaching, many people work behind the scenes.
Before the workshop
During winter/summer: “Someone” takes the coordinator role for the next workshop
Coordinator fills other roles:
Coordinator: collects necessary lesson updates, supports other coordinators
Registration coordinator: Sets up web page, starts and manages registration
Instructor coordinator: Finds instructors and onboards them
Advertising coordinator: Prepares advertizement texts and finds people to distribute them
Team coordinator: Gathers local organizers/teams
Bring your own code session coordinator: If available, offer BYOC session after main workshop
Instructor: Onboarding with (instructor-) coordinator and previous instructor of lesson; update of lesson materials (urgent issues and personal touches)
Local organizer/Team lead: Group onboarding ~ week/or two before workshop
Learner: Gets installation instructions, invited to installation help session, workshop info from event page and summary via e-mail
Collaborative notes manager sets up the notes document
Note
Outline of what will happen during the workshop
Discussion of different strategies to handle the exercise sessions
Lowering the barrier to ask for support by meeting some organizers
Q&A
Note
Instructions for all operating systems
Goal: Learners leave the workshop and are ready to apply the learned tools and techniques to their own work
Support session for installation challenges
During the workshop
Image showing the different ways learners can do the exercises. No matter which way they choose, they always watch the stream and interact with instructors and organizers via collaborative notes. Individual learners do the exercises alone, people in online or local classrooms in addition get to discuss with their peers.
Everyone watches stream
Co-instructors - Present content - Answer questions in collaborative notes
Collaborative notes manager
Keeps the collaborative notes clean
Helps answering questions
Adds sections
Archives the document after each day
Learners do exercises individually or in team
Local organizer / Team lead
Guides learners through exercises
Facilitates discussion
(Registration-) coordinator sends out e-mails to participants after each day (summary + preparation)
Director/Broadcaster manages the streaming (see session 4)
After the workshop
Coordinator collects lessons learned based on experience and feedback and turns them into issues
Coordinator organizes debriefing week after the workshop, where anyone can join to give feedback
“Someone” sends out post-workshop survey half a year after workshop
Coordinator organizes “Bring your own code” sessions
Broadcaster prepares and shares recording (see session 4)
Note
Bring your own code sessions
We want to support learners to apply what they have learned in the workshop to their own work by offering one/two sessions where they can drop in, and discuss challenges with CodeRefinery instructors and helpers.
Image showing a classroom learning about git leading to a discussion between student and teacher to start a welcoming environment for asking for help.
This sounds like a lot of people and time investment!
Many roles can be combined or adjusted as needed
Some roles can be taken on by multiple people
So how many people are needed for this kind of workshop?
Recommended minimum: 2-3 people
Optimum: ~ 4-5 people The more people you involve, the more time goes into coordination work.
How did we get to this setup?
Collaborative in-person workshops since 2016 around the Nordics
Moved online in 2020
Started with “traditional zoom” workshops, breakoutrooms, volunteer helpers
Thought about scaling and ease of joining -> current setup (More about this in session 4)
Continuous development
We also still do smaller scale local workshops, if instructors are available. You can offer your own CodeRefinery workshop by inviting other CodeRefinery instructors. You can also reuse single lessons and integrate them into your own teaching.
Workshop roles and their journeys
Individual learner journey
Registration
Installation
(if appicable: Invited to local meetup)
Workshop
Watch stream
Q&A in notes
Exercises alone or in team
Daily feedback
Debrief/ Feedback session
Post workshop survey
Instructor journey
Indicate interest in CodeRefinery chat
Onboarding
Lesson material updates
Teaching
(if wished: supports answering questions in notes)
Debrief
Team lead / Local host journey
Registration
(if applicable: run own registration)
Onboarding
Workshop
Watch stream
Facilitate exercises/discussions
Daily feedback
Debrief / feedback / survey
Other roles
Director and broadcaster roles will be discussed in Session 4. For more in-depth descriptions and other roles (host, instructor, registration coordinator, etc), see also our CodeRefinery manuals.
Different roles as stepping stones for community involvement
Image showing a person jumping from step to step following learner, helper, expert helper, co-instructor, co-organizer.
There is no “one way” to get involved. Do what feels right. Interested in teaching with us? Let us know and we can discuss what is a suitable path for you!
Keypoints
CodeRefinery workshops are a collaborative effort with many different roles
Onboarding the different roles is one key aspect of our workshops
Everyone has their own path